The present disclosure is generally directed to electrical connectors. More particularly, the connectors disclosed herein have terminal position assurance (TPA) elements. Specifically, the present disclosure is directed to TPA connectors having a finger-actuated retainer.
TPA connectors have been developed primarily to ensure the proper seating of terminals installed within the cavities of the connector housing usually by the end user. Improper seating of a terminal in the cavity may occur if the terminal is not fully inserted into the housing during the assembly of the connector. Typically, TPA connectors allow one to determine whether the inserted terminal has been properly seated. TPA connectors also secure these terminals in a position for mating with the contacts of a complementary connector or other electrical device. Also, TPA connectors can be locked to maintain the integrity of the terminal connections against vibrations and other jarring motions. Accordingly, TPA connectors have found considerable use in the automotive industry.
TPA connectors typically include a connector body having cavities for accepting terminals, and a retainer. Such TPA connectors usually are provided to end users with the retainer joined with the connector body as a single unit but with the retainer not fully locked to the connector body. In other words the. TPA connector is provided in a pre-lock state. The end user can then insert the individual terminals into the respective cavities of the connector body. Each cavity of the connector body can have a latching arm which is deflected by the terminal as it passes into the cavity. Once the terminal is fully inserted, the resilient latching arm rebounds back to its initial position and latches behind a shoulder or other terminal surface to secure the terminal in the cavity.
After all the terminals have been inserted into their respective cavities, the retainer can be pressed into a fully locking position. The retainer has finger members sized to fit behind the latching arms to prevent the latching arms from being deflected out of the latched position against the terminal. The retainer can also have deflectable locking arms for engaging posts on the connector body to lock the retainer to the connector body when the retainer is moved to the fully locked position.
Generally, once the retainer is fully locked to the connector body, a tool is required to move the retainer back to the pre-lock state. While this is advantageous to prevent accidental disengagement, it presents difficulties, such as creating delays in the assembly process, when the retainer is accidentally or inadvertently moved to the fully locked state prior to insertion of the terminals. Inadvertent locking of the retainer is known to happen on occasion during transport of the TPA connectors.
In order to minimize or prevent inadvertent locking of the retainer to the connector body, TPA connectors have been provided with levered locking arms which abut stop members to impede the retainer from moving to the fully locked position. In order to fully lock the retainer, the user must actively press one end of the levered locking arms to pivot the opposite ends outward. This disengages the locking arms from the stop member and allows the retainer to move to the fully locked position.
Such TPA connectors with levered locking arms, however, result in the ends of the arms pivoting outward from the connector body which increase the space requirement for the TPA connector. In addition, outwardly pivoting locking arms are prone to snagging nearby wires or other objects.
Accordingly, the present disclosure provides TPA connectors which resist inadvertent locking of the retainer and have a compact package. TPA connectors disclosed herein can require a large force to inadvertently move the retainer to a fully locked position while affording minimal effort to purposefully move the retainer to a fully locked position. Also, the locking arms of the present TPA connectors also resist snagging that can otherwise occur with TPA connectors having outwardly pivoting locking arms. Furthermore, TPA connectors according to the present disclosure can resist dismounting or separation of the retainer from the connector body.